


Home For Christmas

by Zooey_Glass



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-24
Updated: 2009-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-02 09:49:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zooey_Glass/pseuds/Zooey_Glass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Schmoopy, schmoopy schmoop.</p><p><em>Booking flights that left on Christmas Eve was probably dumb, given the high likelihood that a blizzard would dump a ton of freaking snow on Vancouver and jam all the flights. Which is exactly what's happened, and now he and Jared are stuck here for Christmas.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Home For Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> [spn_j2_xmas](http://community.livejournal.com/spn_j2_xmas/) gift for [jedinic](http://jedinic.livejournal.com/) who asked for Jared and Jensen's first Christmas in Canada and said "Okay, these are cliches, but hey, I like these types of stories!" Um... I may possibly have run with that, hahaha. Probably the schmoopiest thing I've ever written. There's some bonus artwork to go with it, because I got addicted to the schmoop - click on the pictures to see the bigger versions.

They never planned for this.

They should have, Jensen realizes in retrospect, because the weather in Vancouver is hardly kind at the best of times, and this has been a particularly hard winter. Booking flights that left on Christmas Eve was probably dumb, given the high likelihood that a blizzard would dump a ton of freaking snow on Vancouver and jam all the flights. Which is exactly what's happened, and now he and Jared are stuck here for Christmas.

The snow isn't just affecting the flights: it's a thick blanket across the entire city, bringing traffic to a crawl and keeping everyone who's sane inside. Jensen's not sane - or rather, Jared's not - and so he consents to trying to fight their way through to the airport, in the hope that the runways will be cleared and there'll be at least _some_ flights, even if the ones they're actually booked on don't make it out. Of course, they get there to find utter chaos - hundreds of tired, upset people milling around and trying to get answers from harassed-looking staff. Only two flights are going out at all, and it's immediately obvious that there isn't a hope in hell of getting on them.

"Guess we're gonna have to go home," Jensen tells Jared.

Jared nods miserably, all hunched up in his hoodie and big coat and what looks like three different scarves. He _loves_ having a family Christmas. Normally he would have been home at least a week ago, indulging in the lunacy which passes for holiday tradition in the Padalecki household (Jensen swung by one year for a pre-Christmas drink and came out dazed from the onslaught of tinsel and sugar and general Christmas cheer), but one of the crew had thrown an enormous Christmas party which she'd insisted absolutely everyone should attend. She's a good friend as well as one of the longstanding members of the crew, and they'd both been home at Thanksgiving anyway, so they'd stuck around for that.

Definitely a tactical error.

"Let's go home," Jensen says again.

"Sorry I made you drive all the way out here," Jared mumbles. "Should have known it was no good."

Jensen kind of agrees with that statement, but Jared looks so guilty and miserable that he doesn't have the heart to rub it in. "Worth a try," he says instead.

Jared stays quiet and subdued all the way home, disappearing upstairs as soon as they get in to call his parents and tell them the bad news. He's on the phone for at least an hour and a half - his calls home are always epic, and the entire family is bound to be there, lining up to talk to him, probably.

Jensen uses the time to call his own family, which leaves him feeling a little miserable on his own behalf. Christmas has never been the big holiday in his family - Thanksgiving is the time when everyone gets together to really party - but it's still sad to realize that he'll be missing out on trimming the tree and pretending not to notice how his mom sneaks the figure of Baby Jesus into the manger in their ancient nativity scene. Plus, he really, really loves his mom's Christmas meal.

It's imagining the taste of his mom's sweet potatoes which makes Jensen realize the real issue with spending Christmas in Vancouver: no Christmas dinner. Not only that, but he's not completely sure that they have _any_ real food. They've been so busy the last week or so, with various get-togethers and parties, that their usual fairly minimal grocery shopping has dropped to abysmal levels. He goes to look through their cupboards and is dismayed to have his suspicions confirmed: there's a good chance they'll be eating canned corn and an ancient box of Lucky Charms for Christmas dinner.

Jensen sighs and abandons the thoughts he'd been entertaining about a long, hot shower and maybe a nap. There's a grocery store a few blocks away that should still be open: he has his doubts about assembling the ingredients for anything really spectacular, but they can at least have fresh bread and milk.

* * *

Walking to the store, Jensen's struck again by how miserable this whole fuck-up seems to have made Jared. He guesses he can understand it: Jared's a hell of a family-oriented guy, and neither of them get to see their folks as much as they'd like. Still, it's unlike Jared not even to try and laugh it off. In fact, now he thinks about it, Jared's been kind of subdued since he got back after Thanksgiving. Ever since their first year in Vancouver, Jensen's been resigned to enduring the full holiday-spirit routine from Jared - decorations stuck everywhere and off-key carol singing from about October - but that hasn't happened this year. Jensen had vaguely assumed Jared was just dialing it down at last, but half a second's real consideration of that idea shows how ridiculous it actually is.

Now he's _giving_ the matter a moment's serious consideration, it occurs to Jensen that the winter hiatus was always Sandy-and-Jared time. Sandy's almost as into the whole holiday spirit as Jared is, and the winter hiatus is usually relatively free of public appearances and other jobs, so every year up until now the two of them have spent the bulk of their time together. He can see how the break-up might be getting to Jared all over again, now that there's no work to take his mind off things.

Following on from that, Jensen realizes he's barely given Danneel a thought over the whole holiday season. He winces slightly: he hadn't exactly wanted to believe it when she said that he just wasn't interested enough in her, but faced with the lack of impact their break-up has had on him, he has to acknowledge that it's pretty much true. It makes him feel doubly bad that she was the one who had to break up with him, but at least that means she got to leave with her pride more or less intact.

There are even slimmer pickings at the grocery store than Jensen had expected: they're down to whole milk (which they'll actually both enjoy, even though neither of them drink it normally) and some flabby-looking white bread. Jensen buys it anyway, along with some eggs and a couple of packs of bacon. He'd hoped for some fresh fruit and veg, but when he asks the store owner shakes his head regretfully. The snow's been fucking up deliveries, plus the store's closed for the next two days. Jensen buys syrup instead, figuring that pancakes are a more realistic menu plan anyway. After a moment's reflection, he adds a bottle of the best whiskey the store has to his basket.

Jared's in the shower when Jensen gets back home, so he unpacks the groceries and pours himself a glass of the whiskey. He'd really like a shower himself - after another trip through the snow he's really freaking cold - but they've learned through bitter experience that the water pressure in the house does cruel and unusual things if two people try to shower at the same time.

He ponders Jared's unhappy mood while he drinks the whiskey, and thinks it really is a shame that Jared's not going to get to see his family this Christmas. Jared's regaled him at length with the details of Padalecki family Christmases - even on a good year, being stuck in freezing Vancouver with nobody but Jensen for company would probably hit hard.

Jensen looks around the sitting room. There are a few decorations up, because Jared hasn't been _completely_ out of it, but he hasn't gone all-out the way he usually does. Jensen's pretty sure he knows where the box of decorations is, though - he hauled it down to the basement himself when he helped Jared clear out the downstairs rooms so he could move in. He sits there for a minute or two, irresolute. He might as well get a few more things out, at least - it's not like he's got anything else to do.

There are a bunch of tacky ornaments in the box - little plastic snowmen and reindeer in funny poses. Jensen arranges them along the mantelpiece, putting a figurine of Santa in pride of place, and adds a line of tinsel. He's just stepped back to admire the result when Jared walks in, dressed in his oldest flannel sweatpants and another big, soft hoodie. His hair's still a little wet from his shower.

Jensen jumps back from the ornaments guiltily and waits for Jared to comment on them. He doesn't, though - just says, "Is there still pizza in the freezer?"

"There is now," Jensen tells him. That was one thing the store _wasn't_ out of - it's quite possible that the end of the world could arrive and there'd still be stocks of frozen pizza in their big chest freezers.

Jared grunts something in reply and wanders through to the kitchen. "Pepperoni or four seasons?" he shouts through.

"Pepperoni," Jensen shouts back automatically, still frowning at the row of ornaments. Maybe Jared will notice them once he's got something in his stomach.

Jared doesn't, though - he just wolfs down a whole pizza and drinks three beers, then stands up, scratching his belly. "Imma hit the sack," he mumbles, and wanders off upstairs without even waiting for a reply.

"Night," Jensen calls after him. He sits there for a while longer, pondering the Christmas decorations. Clearly they're just not noticeable enough. He digs into the box for more.

Three quarters of an hour later, Jensen's pulled out pretty much every decoration Jared's hoarded during his four-year campaign to bring Christmas joy to Vancouver. He puts up everything he can, but at least half of the stuff turns out to be baubles and other shit that really needs to be hung on a tree. Jensen already knows that Jared doesn't have an artificial tree - Jared once treated him to a fifteen-minute lecture on how fake trees just weren't the same - so that's out. Definitely, absolutely out. And Jensen is not in any way contemplating venturing back out into the cold yet again in order to try hacking off a branch from the big tree that overshadows half the garden.

When he's finished doing that - and wrestled the branch into staying upright in a makeshift pot constructed from a mop bucket and some shiny wrapping paper - he finally has the shower he's been promising himself all evening. The hot water is bliss on his numbed hands and feet, and he luxuriates under the spray, taking his time soaping himself up. When his cock stiffens and fills he goes with it, jerking off slow and lazy with his soap-slicked hand. He doesn't let himself think about Danneel - it seems a little disrespectful somehow - so he just floats in the sensation, enjoying vague images of sun-bronzed skin and sweat-damp hair without pinning them down too closely.

He's relaxed and sleepy when he finishes up, already looking forward to his warm bed. As he's toweling off, though, his eye falls on the dumb fish-shaped radio that Jared gave him as a gag gift last year. _Shit_. He'd forgotten all about Christmas presents. They've already given each other their gifts, of course, since they weren't expecting to even see each other on Christmas Day. But there's no way that Jensen can watch Jared wake up on Christmas morning with no gifts to open.

He sighs and pulls on his sweatpants instead of climbing into bed. There has to be something in the house that will do as a gift for Jared. When Jensen was a kid, they never bought gifts for each other - he always spent the weeks leading up to Christmas making things for everyone in his family. He doubts that Jared would be thrilled at receiving a lopsided clay model, though, even if he had the equipment. Besides, Jensen has his pride.

Jensen pads into the kitchen and pulls open a cupboard, staring thoughtfully at the contents. Maybe homemade objets d'art are out, but he distinctly remembers Mackenzie baking gifts for everyone one year, and Jared usually waxes lyrical about his mom's Christmas cookies. They have sugar and eggs for definite, because Jensen included them in his grocery shop. Ditto chocolate: not chocolate chips, but how hard can it be to smash up a bar of chocolate into small enough bits? He picks up a bag of flour and weighs it in his hand. It doesn't seem like enough, but Jensen's pretty sure his mom puts oats in her cookies, and they have those, a whole bag left over from Jared's brief craze for eating oatmeal (brief because on the third day of the experiment, Jared got distracted by something and left the oatmeal to boil over on the stove, ruining its pan beyond repair and making a stench so foul that Jensen instituted a rule about no cooking anything more complicated than pop tarts on work days).

Fifteen minutes on the internet give Jensen a recipe, and within half an hour he's managed to get the cookies mixed and into the oven. He hits a slight snag when he realizes he doesn't have any baking sheets apart from the one they usually use for pizza, which is slightly the worse for wear due to Jared's insistence that there's no need to wash things which get baked in the oven anyway, but a bit of work with some tinfoil resolves that issue.

When Jensen finally crawls into bed that night he's sticky with cookie dough and glue, a few bits of glitter from the wrapping paper adhering to his cheek.

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006ysq9)

* * *

The sound of his cell phone ringing takes quite a long time to penetrate Jensen's dreams - there's a confused moment where he's dreaming that he's Dean rescuing Sam from some insane clown, and the beep of the phone is some kind of crazy clown alarm. When the clown beats him across the ear with the stupid bladder on a stick it's carrying, he jerks awake to find that he's got his phone smooshed up under his face, bending one ear painfully.

He blearily finds the answer button. "Hello?"

"We wish you a Merry Christmas! We wish you a Merry Christmas!" Mackenzie's voice is just as cheerful, awake and annoying as it has been every other Christmas when she's bounced into Jensen's room at the crack of dawn demanding that he wake up _right now_. "We WISH you a Merry Christmas, and a Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy New Year!"

Jensen holds the phone away from his ear a little. "Hey 'Kenzie. Happy Christmas."

"You suck," Mackenzie informs him. "Having Christmas in Vancouver is lame."

"Yeah," Jensen agrees. "Well, blame the weather, not me."

"Whatever." Mackenzie brushes the excuse off. "The point is, Josh is totally a grown-up now, it sucks not having you here to open stockings with."

"I'm a grown-up!" Jensen protests feebly.

"Anyway," Mackenzie says, more seriously. "I hope y'all are doing okay and you're not freezing to death up there."

"We're getting by," he assures her. "You keep your hands off my gifts, ya hear?"

Mackenzie laughs at the note of genuine concern in his voice. "I thought you were a grown-up," she teases him.

"Yeah, old enough to know how unscrupulous you get when you run out of things to unwrap," Jensen grouses.

Upstairs, he hears Jared stumbling into the shower.

"Listen, I gotta go," he tells his sister. "Wish Mom and Dad a happy Christmas for me. I'll call you all later."

He snaps his phone shut and scrounges around for a pair of clean pants. If Jared takes his usual epic shower, then there'll be plenty of time to cook pancakes.

* * *

Jared wanders downstairs three quarters of an hour later, looking vaguely grouchy. He blinks when he sees Jensen already up.

"Pancakes?" Jensen asks cheerily.

"Dude, you made breakfast already?" Jared starts. Then he takes in the rest of the room, staring open-mouthed at the decorated tree branch (already starting to tilt crazily off to one side under the weight of the baubles), the wrapped presents piled up next to his plate, and the sight of Harley and Sadie, eyes bright and tongues lolling out cheerily under their matching party hats.

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006h7da)

"Dude..." he says weakly, and stares a bit more.

"Merry Christmas!" Jensen says.

The longer Jared just stands there in silence, the more nervous Jensen starts to feel. What if his half-assed attempt at making something like a proper Christmas Day is just rubbing it in that Jared isn't where he really wanted to be - at home with his family. Hell, if the real cause of his moping is the break-up with Sandy, then some dumb decorations and the promise of a day spent sitting around with Jensen are probably just going to feel like salt in the wound.

"Dude," Jared says a third time, and breaks into a smile. "You - Santa's been! This is Christmas!"

"It traditionally is Christmas on the 25th," Jensen observes dryly, but he's ridiculously relieved. This is his Christmas too, and it would really suck to have gone to all this trouble and then find that Jared hated it.

Jared just keeps on grinning. "This is _awesome_. How did you get all this done, man?"

"Just a little Christmas magic," Jensen says airily, but he can feel a warmth spreading through his chest, and it really _does_ feel like Christmas magic. He's grinning back at Jared, goofily, and maybe a little too enthusiastic, and he suddenly feels the need to busy himself with the breakfast things.

Jared sits down and eats about a gazillion pancakes, talking nonstop between bites about how his mom always cooks pancakes for Christmas breakfast, and the way she always used to make a special pancake for each of the kids, dripping the batter in a pattern to make a pancake person. Jensen just sits back and lets him run, enjoying himself more than he has for days. He realizes that this - bouncy, hyperactive Jared - fills a gap in him that he hadn't even realized he had.

It's only when all the pancakes are eaten that Jared quietens down again, fiddling with his fork and pouring swirls of syrup in elaborate curlicues on his plate. He won't quite meet Jensen's eye, and the conversation falters and stops.

"You gonna open your presents?" Jensen says finally, because Jared won't quite look at those either, although they're pretty hard to miss, half of them wrapped in the purple sparkly paper Jensen had picked out for Mackenzie's gifts and the rest in the hideous green and orange that they'd wrapped Tom and Mikey's gag gifts in.

Jared flushes and looks even more unhappy. "I didn't... Jensen, I wasn't expecting any of this. I haven't got a gift for you."

Jensen actually laughs out loud, because if that's the cause of Jared's current slump then he can definitely live with it.

Jared looks even more miserable. "I'm really sorry. I suck as a friend, man."

"Dude, wait till you see the gifts before you start beating yourself up," Jensen says. "They're not exactly Santa's finest. Anyway, I'm totally making you wash all the dishes for the next forever."

Jared relaxes a little bit, and Jensen reassures him, "It's no big deal, seriously. I don't need a gift. But I'm gonna be pissed if you don't open these after I've worked my ass off making sure the Grinch didn't steal Christmas."

Jared pulls the first gift towards him - one of the purple sparkly ones with a pink fluffy bow Jensen found in the bottom of the box of decorations. Sadie yips excitedly when he opens it and pulls out an extra-large doggie biscuit.

"Couldn't let the kids go without a Christmas present," Jensen tells him seriously.

Jared laughs. "I just hope you haven't been playing favorites."

"Never," Jensen promises solemnly. "I mean, Sadie knows that the way to my heart is not to put wet paws on my bed, which counts for a lot, but I don't wanna give Harley self-esteem issues."

Jared grins more and opens the orange and green package Jensen indicates, pulling out one of Harley's favorite chew treats. "Equal treatment is key," he says solemnly.

"It sure is," Jensen agrees, and pushes across the package of cookies for Jared. He had some trouble figuring out how to wrap it up - Mackenzie had made cute little boxes when she did hers, but he didn't have anything like that. In the end he'd cannibalized the box of Lucky Charms, doing his best to get the gift-wrap around it without smooshing all the cookies in the process.

"Thanks, man," Jared says around about three cookies. "My self esteem was getting a little bruised, for sure."

Jensen steals a cookie from the box - he's just eaten his own bodyweight in pancakes and bacon, but it's not really Christmas without making yourself sick on sugar.

It doesn't take long for Jared to open the rest of his presents - a mix CD that Jensen stayed up way too late to make, and a fresh can of shaving cream in honor of the Winchesters. Jensen had considered a porn mag, but the only - ahem - fresh one he has is one that he suspects Jared would be decidedly uninterested in. Despite the fact they live in each other's pockets, that's a conversation that Jensen's so far avoided having to have with Jared. After all, for most of the time they've known each other they've both had girlfriends.

Jared leans back in his chair and sighs with contentment. "Thanks, Jensen."

Jensen flushes in pleasure. "Couldn't stand the thought of watching you moping around the house all day."

Normally Jared would respond to a crack like that with mock outrage, but this time he just gives a small smile and says again, "Thank you."

They sit there quietly for a little while, and Jensen wonders what they're supposed to do now. If he was at home, he'd be getting ready for church about now, but he doesn't have a regular church close by, and the snow's still falling, blanketing the empty roads with soft whiteness. This shouldn't feel weird - he and Jared hang out practically every day, for god's sake - but somehow it seems like they should be doing something special today.

"I guess I should - " Jared begins awkwardly, gesturing vaguely towards the stairs.

"You wanna have a snow fight?" Jensen says at the same moment.

Jared's face lights up. He _loves_ snowball fights, hasn't grown tired of them even after four years in Vancouver, where snow's hardly a novelty. Normally Jensen tries to discourage him, because the last thing he wants to do on a shoot is get cold and soaked to the skin after Jared tackles him into a snow bank. But what the hell - they're at home now, it's Christmas Day, and they still have those crazy big coats they had for the Whistler shoot.

"Half an hour to build a fort?" Jared's already on his feet, heading towards his room to get some proper clothes on.

"Deal," Jensen agrees. "Winner gets first shower." It's a risky bet, because Jared has far more limbs than one human being should be allowed, and he throws a mean snowball. When it comes to snow forts, though, Jensen has _tactics_, and he fully intends to win.

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006qw10)

* * *

Jensen has the advantage, because he's already properly dressed, and he makes it out into the back yard a couple of minutes before Jared. He uses the time to his advantage, staking out the territory and selecting the likeliest corner to build his fort. He chooses the spot just by the big tree he raided for Christmas tree use, where the wind has piled a big heap of snow up already. The tree reduces visibility a bit, but it'll be a good place to shelter from Jared, and when the sun moves round it'll shade him from the worst of the glare.

Jared comes bouncing out with both the dogs, muffled to the eyebrows, and yells, "Dude, no fair, we're supposed to flip for who chooses first."

"You snooze, you lose," Jensen tells him, and carries on building his fort, packing up the snow high enough to form a barrier. It's a lot harder doing this than it was the one time he made a snow fort as a kid: getting the snow up high enough to protect him is a losing battle, even when he's on his knees. He manages to make enough of a fort to deserve the name, though, and then starts in on making snowballs, stacking them close to hand behind the fort wall. There's a real art to making snowballs, especially when you're not going to use them right away: he wants them strong enough to throw easily, but loosely packed enough that they'll splatter satisfyingly when they hit Jared. The first two or three he makes are packed too tight, hardening into lethal balls of ice practically as soon as he sets them down, but after that he gets into the swing of it, rolling handful after handful of snow into perfect snowballs.

Jared's working just as hard, somewhat hindered by the way the dogs are running about his legs excitedly and digging into the bank of snow he builds up. Still, by the time the half hour's up they've both amassed a reasonable arsenal.

They meet in the middle of the yard and shake hands ceremonially before taking their places behind the forts. Jensen's already decided that his best strategy will be to stay behind his own fort and bombard Jared and the dogs for as long as possible. The fact that Jared's got the mutts on his side would be completely unfair if it wasn't for the fact that once things get crazy, they're just as likely to trample on Jared's fort as on Jensen's. So all Jensen has to do is make sure that things get crazy as quickly as possible, before they have a chance to hit his corner.

He counts down slowly, "3-2-" Before he gets to one, Jared's already sending a handful of snow flying towards him, but Jensen's ready for dirty tricks. He hurls the snowball he's got in his own hand, diving out of range and gathering up as many missiles as he can. He keeps low, popping up from behind the bank of snow and throwing quick and accurate. Jared's hindered in this respect, both because he's too damn tall to stay down behind his fort, and because the dogs have completely failed to understand they're supposed to stay out of range. They bound around joyfully, barking and jumping up to try and catch the flying balls of snow.

Jensen scores several hits on the dogs, and one really satisfying one on Jared, before he runs out of snowballs. He grabs more snow, feverishly rolling it into balls, but when he pops back up Jared's more than halfway across the yard, hollering wildly and grinning like a madman. Jensen hurls the snowball he's just made at Jared, catching him full in the face, and takes advantage of Jared's momentary blindness to get out from behind the fort. The time for defense is over: he needs to take Jared's fort down before Jared can get to him.

Jared gives a roar when he sees Jensen bearing down on his fort and dives, scooping up a handful of snow as he goes. Jensen rolls out of the way, and decides that the only route left open to him is foul play. He flings another snowball in the direction of Jared's fort, yelling "Fetch, Harley!" as loud as he can. Both dogs surge after it, barging each other out of the way in their haste.

"Cheat!" Jared yells, and tackles Jensen, scrubbing his face with a handful of snow. Jensen fights back, but Jared's brought his full weight to bear now, and he doesn't stand a chance. He lets out an undignified high-pitched scream as Jared manages to work a handful of snow up under his coat and three layers of shirts.

"Cry uncle!" Jared demands.

Jensen squirms again, but he's stuck fast. "Never!"

Jared keeps him where he is with one hand, grabbing more snow with the other and stuffing it into Jensen's clothes. A lump of it slides down Jensen's hip and soaks into his pants, making him gasp. "Uncle," he croaks.

Jared loosens his grip, but doesn't move from on top of him. "You swear? You're not gonna double-cross me as soon as I let you up?"

Jared shifts his weight, and Jensen's suddenly very aware of the proximity of his best friend to parts of him that haven't seen much company in a while. "I swear," he croaks desperately. "Uncle."

Jared grins and rolls off him, extending a hand to pull him up. When they look around the yard is a wreck, all the snow churned up crazily by their pounding feet and the mad scurrying of the dogs. Jensen's sneaky tactic with the fort has paid off: the dogs have torn Jared's wall of snow down completely.

"Guess I get the first shower," he says cockily.

"Dude, no way." Jared looks outraged. "You cried Uncle!"

"The bet was on the survival of the fort," Jensen points out. "And I think you'll find that my construction was far superior."

He waits till Jared's opening his mouth to argue, and then lets fly with the giant handful of snow he scooped up while he was still flat on his back.

By the time the second snowfight's finished, they're both soaked to the skin.

* * *

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006kd7b)

Jensen does get the first shower in the end, regardless of Jared's continued insistence that he cheated. It's only fair, really, since he was too busy cooking pancakes to have a shower when he got up this morning.

When he gets out, glowing pleasurably from the effect of the hot water on his snow-chilled skin, Jared's already disappeared upstairs. Jensen surveys his closet thoughtfully. At home, they always dress for dinner on Christmas Day. It seems a bit excessive here, when it's only him and Jared, especially when there's a good chance they'll wind up having pizza for their Christmas meal, but on the other hand it is supposed to be a special day. He compromises with his best jeans and a black button-down, one that he wore for a photo shoot ages ago and liked so much that he hung on to it.

He calls his family again, hearing a round-up of all the gifts given and received and the latest family gossip. One of his cousins is expecting her first baby, and his great-uncle disgraced himself in church (as usual) by falling asleep. It's all comfortable and familiar, and he feels a little pang at missing out on it. He's had a pretty awesome day so far, though, and this way he's also missing out on the inevitable squabbles that will set in after all the food's been eaten and everyone's started to get a little tired.

Jared still hasn't reappeared by the time he gets off the phone, so Jensen pads into the kitchen and opens the cupboards again, trying to figure out what they have that's good to eat. He realizes that he really should have tried to plan a proper menu while he was in the grocery store the night before, instead of just picking up things that looked vaguely appealing, but he'd been too tired.

The cupboards are about as uninspiring as they had been the night before, although he does dig out an old package of polenta which he figures will still be good. The freezer yields more exciting spoils: when he digs down under the frozen pizzas and Jared's packs of high protein goop, he finds a fancy venison casserole that he vaguely remembers buying when Danneel was staying once. Further excavations produce a battered-looking apple pie: Jensen's pretty sure that it's been there since Jared first moved in, but he reasons that nothing too horrible can result from eating out-of-date frozen pie. The only thing resembling a vegetable is something green and unidentifiable, which is either creamed spinach or alien slime. As far as Jensen's concerned there's not much difference between the two, so he leaves it where it is. There are probably some vegetables mixed in with the venison, anyway.

Jensen's pretty proud of how it all looks when it's assembled. There's not that much, though, even allowing for the generous quantity of polenta: the amount of casserole that would have been plenty for him and Danneel is not even going to touch the sides when it's Jared who's eating. In the end Jensen adds pizza to the mix after all, cutting it up in dainty squares so it looks like some kind of a canapé rather than the same thing they ate last night.

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006s3bd)

When Jared finally appears, he's dressed smart too, in a cashmere sweater instead of his usual layers of t-shirts and shirts. The sweater makes it impossible for Jensen to ignore the way Jared's bulked up recently: it clings tight across his chest, showing off the muscles underneath.

Jensen swallows and offers the plate of pizza squares to Jared. "Hors d'oeuvre, sir?"

Jared takes one, looking slightly suspicious, and pops it into his mouth. "Dude! Pizza hors d'oeuvres! That's the coolest Christmas meal ever."

"You're a philistine." Jensen shakes his head mournfully, but he has to admit that it's better than his aunt Jen's infamous prawn cocktail.

"Is there beer?" Jared asks with his mouth full, and gives a moan of contentment when Jensen indicates the glasses on the table. They're out of his own personal stash of microbrews; Jensen's learned through bitter experience that Jared never buys anything other than the blandest of lagers, but he has no objection to drinking decent beer if it's left in his vicinity.

The whole meal actually works out pretty well, even if Jensen does say so himself, and at the end Jared even produces a gift.

"Thought you might like this," he says, slightly shamefacedly.

Jensen unwraps it to find a picture of the two of them at the soapbox derby from earlier in the year. Jared's printed it out and stuck it on a bit of card with strips of wrapping paper around it, and it would be ridiculously soppy if he hadn't also annotated it with an arrow pointing to Jensen along with the word 'LOSER' in big black capitals.

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006tkh9)

"Dude, you totally cheated," Jensen says without rancor. Jared already gave him the latest version of Madden and a new shirt, but somehow this is way better. "Thanks, dorkface."

"Jerk," Jared says cheerfully in response, and gets up from the table. "I'll clear the dishes."

"Damn right you will," Jensen tells him. He gets up himself and wanders through to the kitchen, snagging a couple of tumblers and the new bottle of whiskey. "Gonna see what's on TV."

Jensen leaves Jared stacking the dishwasher and retreats to the couch, sinking gratefully into the cushions. This is the way his Christmas always finishes up: sprawled and sleepy in front of the TV. Despite being miles away from his family, Jensen feels like everything is exactly the way that it should be.

 

* * *

They wind up watching a Star Wars marathon, both of them sprawled boneless and relaxed on the couch. Jensen feels himself sinking further and further into the cushions as the afternoon wears on, his late night and their morning spent running about in the snow finally catching up with him.

The movie is interrupted for a commercial break, full of ads depicting happy family Christmases. Jared says suddenly, "I've never spent Christmas away from my mom and dad before."

Jensen knocks his knee against Jared's sympathetically. "Me either. It's a little weird, huh?"

"Yeah." Jared sounds thoughtful. "But, you know, Thanksgiving was weird too."

"Yeah," Jensen says. "I guess you always used to spend Thanksgiving with Sandy."

Jared gives him a funny look. "I guess," he says slowly. He lapses into silence again, and Jensen doesn't pursue it: he's found that it's best to let Jared take his own time when it comes to talking about this stuff.

The commercials finish and Luke Skywalker reappears on the screen, looking earnest and resolute. Jensen lets himself drift contentedly, enjoying the warm glow of whiskey in his belly and the warm solidity of Jared next to him. He's practically asleep when Jared speaks again.

"Felt weird spending Thanksgiving without you," he mumbles.

Jensen doesn't think Jared even realizes he's still awake. He doesn't move to let him know, just stays where he is, half slumped against Jared's shoulder.

"Missed you," Jared breathes, and Jensen feels his hand brush gently against his cheek.

He opens his eyes to find Jared staring at him, eyes dark and liquid. Jensen's chest feels tight all of a sudden. "Missed you too," he tells Jared.

Jared smiles then. "Thanks for Christmas, Jen."

"Welcome." Jensen feels the overwhelming urge to look away, because the tension stretching between them doesn't make sense at all. Or rather, the kind of sense it does make is impossible, because Jared's his best friend, and Jensen's never even let himself _think_ beyond that boundary. What they have is too good to lose.

"Jensen?" Jared tips Jensen's head back up, making him look him in the face. "Should always spend Christmas with the people you love."

"Yeah," Jensen agrees. "Yeah, you should."

The kiss, when it comes, feels natural, inevitable, and Jensen doesn't even know which of them starts it. Doesn't care, because suddenly it's all slotting into place, all the pieces of him and Jared. They're curled into each other like they've done this a thousand times, and Jensen can hear the dishwasher running in the other room, the sound of Harley turning and settling in his basket, all the little creaks and sighs of their house. Their home.

When they finally pull apart, Jared looks at him a little anxiously. "Okay?"

Jensen grins back at him. "Okay," he agrees.

They never planned for this, but Jensen thinks it'll work out just fine anyway.

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/zooey_glass04/pic/0006xzk0)


End file.
